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Human Management Resources: Human and Non-Human Resources

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1. Human Resources:

Human resources are less tangible resources which originate internally and they constitute the personal characteristics or attributes. Some resources are more tangible than the others. They are used for productive purposes. Human resources play a vital role in creating a satisfied and a successful individual. The potential of human resource is often not realized and they tend to be overlooked. Some of the important human resources are Knowledge, Abilities, Skills, Interest, Attitude, Energy etc.

Knowledge:

Knowledge is a human resource which can constantly be built up and utilized in every sphere of activities. The home maker’s knowledge goes a long way in determining the success of managing a home. A home maker can use this human resource in meal planning for the family to meet the quantitative an qualitative standards of the nutritional requirement. Her knowledge about latest techniques of achieving goals with least expenditure of money, time and energy, help her to achieve her goals.

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Knowledge is a resource when it is used by the homemaker for selection and buying appropriate food at suitable times of the year, an understanding of the use of time and energy saving equipment’s. Purchasing of goods, commodities, furniture’s and furnishing proper places and brands.

The home maker should have knowledge of repairing minor electrical, learning how taxes are to be paid how to get maximum interest from saving, running her home economically with new techniques, giving admission to her children, knowledge about handling and repairing household equipment which will enhance their value and use etc. Knowledge as a human resource can help the homemaker to manage her home properly.

Abilities and Skills:

Abilities and skills are important human resources by which the family can achieve the goals. Abilities and skills of the homemaker and the other members of the family can range over wide areas from cooking, knitting, sewing and other domestic activities. Some skills can either be inherited or learned by practice.

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New skills can be learnt or old skills may be improved to achieve family goals in relation to self development and effective use of leisure time. Skill of sewing and embroidering can not only give one a sense of satisfaction of indulging in something creative but also help to save something in terms of money and time by preparing dresses for the different members of the family. Thus the tailoring bills can be cut short, e.g. Housewife may use her tailoring skills for making inexpensive curtains or dresses for her family.

The skill and abilities of repairing electricity, leaky taps, doing minor carpentry and painting work by the homemaker or any member of the family can become the genuine resources by which the family can achieve the goals. Gardening skill is a fruitful use of leisure time and space available. Cheap and fresh vegetables and fruits are also available to the family. The housewife can learn new ways of cooking or preserving foods thereby improving the quality of food, she gives to her family.

Interest:

Interest is also a human resource. Members of the family posses different types of interest. For e.g. the daughter may be interested in cooking and sewing while the father or the son may be interested in gardening or painting. All these interests of the family should be developed and made use of for the benefit of the family which are important human resources. Interest in interior decoration also becomes a wonderful resource to decorate the house with minimum expenditure.

Attitudes:

Attitudes are the opinions and feelings which can stimulate or retard a particular action. Positive attitude helps one to fulfill the aim of life. The men with positive attitude becomes successful in every field while negative attitude prevents in reaching goal. So the negative attitude of the members of the family must be changed by different ways.

It is very important which helps them to improve. For e.g. Attitudes to bring about the change in the food habits of people, to consume common, inexpensive and seasonal vegetables are the resources of the family. By these positive attitudes the housewife can provide nutritious food with her budget and without spending much time and energy to search for different types of unseasonal vegetables and foods.

Many traditional attitudes which the families posses must be changed by means of education as they act as hindrance in achieving family goals. Optimism, willingness to experiment or try out new ideas and to accept change are some examples of positive attitudes towards the situations one meets in life which are the resources of the family.

Energy:

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Energy is an important human resource. This is defined as the ability to do the work. All activities like personal works as standing, sitting walking, climbing stairs and other household activities as dusting, cleaning, washing, and cooking, repairing works require human energy. When energy of different members of the family is wisely utilized for household activities to achieve the family goals, then they are considered as resource of that family.

All the members of the family should use minimum energy for maximum benefit by proper management. The home maker needs energy to carry on with her daily activities. Lack of energy makes her unfit for both mental and physical activity. She should learn to use her energy resources wisely. All human resources should be made use of in managing family. They help the family in achieving short term as well as long term goals if utilized properly.

2. Non-Human Resources:

Non-Human Resources are time, money, properties, goods, services and community facilities. These are also known as material resources. These are easily identified and are essential for the achievement of most of the family goals. Material resources include everything possessed by the family and by the community to which the family belongs.

Time:

It is an important non human resource for a family for achieving the goals. Time is such a resource which is available in equal amount to each and every member of the family. Every individual has twenty four hours a day to complete his job. For the proper utilization of time, basic awareness along with practice is necessary. Time is the most easily perishable of all the resources.

Time and energy are closely related to each other. Using the right amount of energy and vigour to complete a task, saves time and energy for other activities in the home. One must always be conscious of time available and time needed to carry out various activities. Time is a useful resource not only for occupational activities but also for rest and leisure. Planning the wise use of time enables the homemaker to achieve more by reducing tension and worries.

Money:

Money is the most important resource of each and every family. It has the purchasing power. It can be exchanged for goods and services. As money is not available equally to all families and is limited, the home makers must carefully manage it to achieve goals of the families.

Properties:

Material resources of the family include immovable property like houses, shops, land etc. and movable property like money, jewellery, cars, motorbikes equipment, furniture’s and furnishings. These are the assets of the families by the use of which a family can achieve the goals.

Goods and Services:

Material goods may be durable and long lasting like air-conditioners, cars, television sets, other furniture’s or they may be consumable, item like food, clothing, cosmetics etc. These goods are generally acquired by the family by the use of money. The quantity of goods and commodities in a family is limited by the availability of money, which is an important non human resource.

All these goods and commodities must be utilized properly to become a resource. Services of all the members of the family are the resource of a particular family. Services are utilized for doing different household activities. For e.g. instead of keeping a servant if the family members are doing the household work by themselves the services are considered as resources.

Community Facilities:

The most important resources of the community which the family makes use of are hospitals, public libraries, schools, collages, co-operative stores, markets, parks, water and electricity supply, playgrounds etc. Utilization of these resources often helps to provide a family with services and goods at a reasonable cost.

Some resources can be considered as being both human and non human resources, e.g. time and energy. If these resources are utilized by the homemaker herself they are considered as human resource. For doing household activities the housewife can utilize her own energy and time.

In other cases, if the housewife employs a maid servant for doing household activities the energy and time of others are utilized in exchange of money. This becomes the non human resources because here labour is hired or exchanged for money. Now-a-days human energy is substituted by other types of energy like electricity, gas etc.

Energy of the housewife is also being saved by the advancement of common community services such as tap water supplied in the house by the water supply system of the town, where the family is living. In the absence of water supply system, the house wife had to fetch water from a well to be used by her family. This has resulted in lot of conservation of energy of the housewife by community facilities.

As all the resources are limited they should be properly managed and utilized. The success of management process depends upon the recognition, allocation and use of resources. In order to do this one should have the basic knowledge of classification and characteristics of resources. Family goals guide the use of family resources.

While making use of the limited family resources the important goal of the well being of the whole family should be kept in view. Interests of all the members should be taken into consideration. By doing this the family will enjoy happiness and satisfaction as there will be proper balance between the needs of the family and the family resources.